Spring Cleaning

The best support for your liver is to eat 75 percent of your foods raw, enabling your liver to cleanse daily. Adding liver-loving foods such as fresh raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, fresh-pressed juices, whole grains, bitter greens and culinary and medicinal herbs encourages detoxification and aids digestion.

I take your health to heart! For this month’s focus on internal cleansing, I’ve developed the following recipes to please the palate, stimulate digestive juices and get your bile flowing, all important for a happy liver and optimum living.

Tomato-Arugula Pizza

Medicinal Artichoke

Don’t forget artichokes! They are wonderful liver detoxifiers. Research suggests artichokes neutralize toxins and aid digestion and circulation. The peak season for artichokes is the spring but they’re also available through summer and fall.

Herbs for Great Taste and Digestion

Herbs are a wonderful addition to any dish, adding great taste and nutrition. Ginger, dill, caraway and fennel aid digestion. A South Asian custom is to place a small tray of caraway, fennel and anise seed on the table and nibble on them after the meal. Other herbs, like peppermint and licorice root, soothe both the stomach and digestive tract.

Kale Tower with Roasted Potato

Braised Caesar Endive

Instant Sauerkraut with Black Bean and Pineapple

Arugula-Apple Salad with Warm Lentil Dressing